Currently, in the United States market, financial payment processing follows traditional product based routing. This means that payment is destined for a specific product silo prior to being received by a financial institution. Silo payment processing occurs prior to image capture and involves a series of linearly processed steps, in which the form of the received payment input is, in many instances, the same as the payment remittance/settlement. For example, if the payment is inputted electronically, the product silo outputs payment, in many instances, electronically. Thus, each payment type, such as paper, image, electronic, wire, Automated Clearing House (ACH) and the like, has its own product silo and the channel, and thus silo, is chosen prior to transaction submission. These individual product silos are not fully integrated and as such, operate autonomously as separate systems. In this regard, specific product silos require specific logic processing and processing hardware based on which payment type/product the silo is set-up to accommodate.
International payment systems differ somewhat in that the payments are destined for low value channels or high value channels but, similar to Unites States payment processing, payments are pre-dispositioned prior to transmission.
Neither domestic nor international payment systems account for the customer/payor and, in some instances, the payment-processing financial institution, in terms of cost efficiency, timeliness of payment or other payment factors. For example, while a customer may be unconcerned with how a payment is routed, they are typically concerned with the speed of which the payment is received by the payee. In most instances, the customer/payor will desire payment to be received by the payee as soon as possible, however, in some instances the payor may desire a lag-time in payment receipt by the payor to insure that sufficient funds exist in the designated payment account. In addition to timeliness, the customer/payor may be concerned with the quality or risk of the payment transaction, i.e., insuring that the payment is made at the designated time and destination and/or the costs incurred by the customer/payor in making the payment. From the financial institution standpoint, the financial institution is concerned with making the payment in the most cost-efficient manner, so to maximize their profitability, while taking into account the customer's needs in terms of timeliness and payment risk.
Therefore, a need exists to develop systems, method, computer program products and the like for processing financial payments more effectively and cost efficiently. The desired systems, methods, computer program products and the like should allow for processing all types of payment requests in a comprehensive payment processing system. Additionally, the desired systems, methods, computer program products and the like should allow for customers/payors to either predefine payment configuration or dynamically define payment configuration on a per-payment or per-payment file basis, so as to address the needs of the customer/payor in terms of payment timeliness, payment cost, payment quality and the like. In addition, desired systems, methods, computer program products and the like should allow for financial institution to make payment routing decisions that not only take into account the customer's/payor's needs and concerns, but also take into account the financial institutions concern of minimizing the costs related to each transaction. Moreover, by providing for methods, computer program products and the like that allow the customer/payor greater options in predetermined payment configuration and/or dynamically configuring payment on a per-payment basis, the financial institution can implement different price points in the payment process.